what exactly are monoclonal antibodies, and how do they work?

Question

what are they, the process and advantages and disadvantages?

thank you!

In: 1

Answer 1

They bind to a specific part of the target protein, called the epitope. So monoclonal antibodies are more specific than polyclonal antibodies. Polyclonal antibodies bind to multiple regions on the same protein.
The advantage are that the monoclonal antibodies are specific to a small region of the protein, and are therefore less likely to have off-target effects on other proteins compared to polyclonal antibodies.
A disadvantage is that monoclonal antibodies are less sensitive. Only one monoclonal antibody binds to one protein at a time. In contrast, multiple polyclonal antibodies can bind to the same protein.
Polyclonal antibodies are good for things like western blotting and immunostaining, where offtarget protein binding is not as much of a problem whereas monoclonal antibodies are used for in vivo drug targeting and other things that need highly specific binding with low potential for off target effects